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Not far from the Brooklyn Bridge, watching over City Hall, stands the red terra cotta Potter Building, designed by N.G. Starkweather and commissioned by Orlando B. Potter. Constructed from 1883-86 using terra cotta manufactured by the Boston Terra Cotta Company, the Potter building replaced Potter’s World Building that was destroyed by a fire in early 1882. In 1883, The New York Timesannounced that the 11 story office building with the street level commercial space would cost $700,000. To avoid history repeating itself, the Potter Building had the most advanced fireproofing available in the 1880s.
Buildings in the 1880s usually topped out at four stories. But with technological advances, tall buildings between nine and ten stories transformed the streets of lower (Click to read more and see the art)
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All images copyright of Bernadette Moke 2012
